People often accuse politicians of being indecisive, and claim that they rarely take action. It’s obvious that these people haven’t been to Lithuania recently, where the mayor of Vilnius has been spotted marauding around in a tank, crushing illegally parked cars at will.

A video capturing the flamboyant mayor gleefully crushing a luxury Mercedes quickly went viral after being released on the internet, and if the viewer comments are anything to go by, many are supportive of this new style of ‘hands-on governing’!

The video was staged, of course, but it highlighted an important point raised by Mayor Arturas Zuokas. A keen cyclist, he was infuriated by cars parked unlawfully in the cycle lane and in pedestrian areas. This is becoming a major problem in Vilnius and Zuokas was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying: “I wanted to send a clear message that people with big and expensive cars can’t park wherever they feel like and ignore the rights of pedestrians and bike riders.”

The video ends with straight-faced shots of the mayor himself sweeping up the last scraps of debris left by the destroyed Mercedes, before riding off carefree on his bicycle. “You have to have a sense of humour in my line of work,” Zuokas said, but this was not simply a publicity stunt. The mayor has been encouraging citizens to take up cycling for months, in an effort to improve his city’s roads.

After sitting through the video in disbelief, I am tempted to ask Mr Zuokas, what comes next in your vigilante campaign to improve the streets of your city? Chasing litter-bugs with a flamethrower?
Author: Anthony Hobbs